The 7th Annual Scheme Meeting

03.10.11

Shared Lives South West celebrated another successful year with its Shared Lives carers, the people who live and stay with them, staff, volunteers and supporters at a packed Annual Scheme meeting at the Trethorne Leisure Park near Launceston.  Held on Thursday 29th September, in glorious sunshine, over 130 people came from all across Devon and Cornwall to this yearly event.

Jane Bell, chief executive of Shared Lives South West opened the event, with a particular welcome to so many carers and service users.  Jane went on to present the organisations annual report.  Headline achievements included winning Care Team of the Year in the Great South West care awards, successfully re-registering with the Care Quality Commission, securing a Big Lottery grant to make the DVD and securing the grant for the national dementia project.  Keith Richards, vice chair of the board of trustees gave a financial overview – and outlined how the organisation was coping well in the current financial climate.

The afternoon included the premiere of the six films about Shared Lives which had been made and were now available on a DVD (go to Shared Lives TV to watch the films) .  Kevin and Nick, Gareth and Jo and Sam and Sue, who all feature in the films, were there to see the films and thoroughly enjoyed their screen debuts!  The DVD was hailed as a huge success and a fantastic tool to explain what Shared Lives is all about.

During all this, an intensely competitive ten pin bowling competition between staff and people who use Shared Lives services took place, as usual won by some margin by the service users!
The afternoon finished with a wonderful afternoon tea, enjoyed by all.  Many attendees hailed the event as the “best ever” and we will certainly be going back to Trethorne next year!

For further information, contact Jane Bell at Shared Lives South West on 01626 360170